For the second day in a row a dress code banning men from wearing shorts is coming under fire in the UK. England, just let men wear shorts, yeesh. Today's protesters, school boys from the Isca Academy in Exeter, opposed to their school's no-shorts policy responded by showing up in the school's dress code-approved (but reserved for girls) tartan skirts.

For the last five days British citizens have suffered through a sizzling heatwave, and yesterday's temperature beat record for the hottest day in 41 years (!). That heatwave prompted Joey Barge, a young man working in a call center in Buckinghamshire, England, to break his office dress code. Barge was quickly sent home from work for wearing shorts. So, in protest of the company's policy he returned to work in a dress. News of his protest went viral and sparked an international discussion of equal wardrobe rights in the workplace. Not to mention gender norms in fashion.

Today, thanks to dozens of skirt-wearing teenage boys the conversation has grown. And the reaction from their headteacher, parents, neighbors, and the rest of us looking on, has been largely positive.

We actually think they look pretty cool, or at least cooler than your cousin who wore a kilt to his wedding. And as with Mr. Barge, we applaud them for the positive way they're taking on "The Man" (even if that "man" is actually a woman). It should be noted that a few of the boys were scolded for wearing skirts that were too short—proving that it takes some time to get used to any new style swerve. Still, their protest made an impact. According to the BBC, in-light of rising temperatures world wide (ahem, climate change), it looks like their headteacher, Aimee Mitchell, is willing to consider adding shorts to the official school uniform.

"Shorts are not currently part of our uniform for boys, and I would not want to make any changes without consulting both students and their families," she said. "However, with hotter weather becoming more normal, I would be happy to consider a change for the future."

Let this be a lesson: protest works, skirts are an easy way to keep cool come summer, and gender constructs are self-imposed societal chains and you can break them, should you wish to.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (effective 1/4/2014) and Privacy Policy (effective 1/4/2014). GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with prior written permission of Condé Nast.